Of You and Me
by Fuuga Kumi
Summary: Previously titled Opposite Me. Sora and Riku are best friends and roommates, but when something happens to Sora will it change their relationship forever?
1. Take Three

_  
Affection_

_Chapter 1: Take three_

Writer's Note: you love me, you know it. Oh by the way, every chapter I'll post songs I was listening to while I wrote it. Not necessarily to put you in the mood; just let you know what helped create my insanity! (El Tango De Roxanne; Sparkling Diamonds; I'll Fly Away- Moulin Rouge Soundtrack). P.S. these chapters are fairly short, I wanted a quality story which I feel is better achieved with shorter chapters (that and I'd be able to post more if I didn't give myself a 5 page minimum to meet) so the story-line is going to be going slower, but I SWEAR this is the last re-vamp!

There was a definite thunk against my bedroom wall. I rolled over, pulling the pillow over my head. _Thunk_. Again. Now I was awake, not happy, but awake. I stared from the clock on my bedside table (it was 2:30??) to the wall for a moment, trying to remember what was on the other side.

_Thunk. _Again. That's when it hit me, that was Riku's room. I sat up, pulling my blanket around me and stared at the blank wall.

He was having a nightmare again, it had been happening for the past three years (at least I was aware of it for the past three years). And I would bet all the munny I had it was the same dream.

I made him tell me about it once, when we first moved in together. When he lay there tossing and mumbling darkly to himself until finally, he woke himself up screaming, I didn't know what to do. I use to try to go wake him up before it got to that critical point, but that just seemed to make things worst between us.

I don't think Riku ever forgave himself for that time he lost his hold in the light. I can see it, some days, when one incident or another reminds us of our pasts.

Those dreams he has, I think they made him feel ashamed. A constant reminder that he had been part of the poison, a constant fear that he could return to that side. That's why he doesn't like for any of us to see him like that, that's why he stops talking to me for a few days if I go in there to wake him up.

Over the past year, I've come up with a clever way around his social stigmatism. I poked at the black fur-ball next to me. "Yuffie, wake up."

The kitten roused with an annoyed "mrow?" and blinked sleepily at me. I offered her a smile, scooting her to the edge of the bed, "go help Riku, wake him up."

She exited the room with a flick of her wickedly long tail. I couldn't help but smile, I loved my psychotic ninja kitty.

I leaned against the wall, pressing myself as close to Riku as he'd allow me to be right now; and listened. Yuffie and I had been doing this so long, we knew what was coming next.

She had crawled onto his bed, snuggling under his blanket against his naked chest. She purred lowly, offering him a chance to wake to a comforting sound instead of the way we both knew it would go down.

Riku started mumbling louder now, the words clear through my wall. _No,__Sora no. _

Yuffie pawed gently at his cheek, adding in her own vocal "mew!" to try and rouse him.

_No Sora, please don't! This isn't me, you know this isn't me!_

He's thrashing by this point, arms flailing as if he's trying to escape some horrible fate.

Now Yuffie was on her last resort. She extended her claws, flexing them against his chest, and dug in.

_NO! _Came the final cry as Riku sat up. I could hear his heavy breath through the wall. Now he'd be looking around his room, checking for shadows darker than they should be.

"Good morning to you too Yuffie," he said affectionately, an edge still in his voice. Now he'd be scratching her under her chin, her reward for doing my dirty work.

Count to three Sora, and then lay back down. Riku would be coming around the corner to see if his panicked night woke me up. I'd feign loud snoring and in the morning, neither one of us would acknowledge we knew the others secret.

He settled Yuffie back onto my bed; she curled up gratefully under my chin. I lay as still as I could manage and hoped my snoring was convincing.

I heard Riku sigh, "Sora you are a bad actor," he commented dryly.

Damn. I've been caught! I cracked open one eye to see him sitting on the edge of my bed, a weary smile directed my way. I sent back my own sheepish grin. "Good morning sunshine?"

Riku sighed again, rolling his eyes before plopping over on my bed. "Thanks Sora, I don't know what I would do without you." Then he proceeded to pilfer half of my blanket. "G'night."

I stared, puzzled, at his backside. "Scuse me?" I poked his shoulder, "Riku, your room is that-a-way."

He turned over, no trace of amusement on his face. "But my sheets are all rumpled and by the time I straighten them I'd be fully awake."

Well, I couldn't argue with his logic. Riku was a stickler for having everything straight and orderly. Now he sat up, his eyes concerend (fearful?), "You don't mind do you? I know we're a little old for sleep overs it's just..." he trailed off; neither one of us would ever admit what we secretly knew.

We both slept better when the other was this much nearer. Some part of us kept expecting to wake up to find the other was lost to a nightmare from years ago.

I smiled at him, "Don't be stupid; you're never too old for a sleepover!"

So we hunkered down to salvage what little rest we could. Me pressed against the wall, Yuffie curled under my chin with her tail curled around Riku's shoulder, and Riku with his back turned to me.

I wondered briefly what life would have been like if Kingdom Hearts had never intervened. Would we be dead now? Out on our raft that, by this point in time, would be nothing but drift wood? Would we really have managed to sail to other worlds, just the three of us? Who knew, it's too early to ponder "what if" scenarios.

Time for sleep now, tomorrow I'd have to smile extra bright for Riku.


	2. Something Deeper

Affection

Chapter Two

A. N. Dedicated to my dear friend Lina, who is both a muse and a beta reader :3

Riku was roused from his sleep by the many scents of breakfast wafting from the kitchen. He took a moment to gather himself, stretching himself out slowly as the last vestiges of sleep left him. It took a long minute before Riku realized that he was not in his bedroom, again.

There was no doubt about who this room could belong to. What with the glow-in-the-dark star constellations staring back at him and the dreamy blue paint on the walls. Definitely Sora's room.

Riku had never bothered to paint his room when they both moved into the two bedroom apartment. His was decorated with posters and snap shots while Sora's took on a life all its own.

The silver-haired teen (barely so) laid back on the bed, taking another long minute to ready himself for the day ahead. The ocean whooshed loudly from his right, sure enough, the window was open and a gentle breeze played pass the curtains.

Something small landed on Riku's stomach (where had it come from?) and Yuffie stared at him with eerie cat eyes. "Mrew!" she proclaimed loudly _Morning!_ is how he translated it.

Riku scratched the black cat behind the ear affectionately. She reared up, pushing against his hand before jumping off the bed. Yuffie paused at the doorway, her tail flicking contently as she stared expectantly at Riku.

Time to get up, is what her gaze clearly said, or else. Riku chuckled to himself as he flipped the blanket off (and closed the window, the cat was notorious for escaping sending Sora into childish crying spells for days until she chose to grace them with her presence again). He wandered down the hall to the kitchen, not bothering to visit his room for a more appropriate change of clothes. Not like Sora had never seen him in his boxers anyhow.

"Good morning sexy!" Came the first howls of laughter from Kairi. Selphie wasn't far behind with her "Guess this answers the question of boxers or briefs!" both girls were leaning against each other, so enrapt in their giggles they completely missed Riku's death scowl.

What an impressive scowl it had been too.

Riku moved quickly to his room, comforted slightly by the light chiding the girls were receiving in the other room. He threw on the first articles of clothing he could find, they smelled clean at least…

Returning to the kitchen (and trying to get the blush to stop for the love of Holy!!), Riku did his best to ignore the girls; choosing instead to focus on the figure standing in front of the stove.

It was a daily occurrence to find Sora in the kitchen, he was going to a culinary institute after all, but to see such a breakfast spread was a little more rare. There were three types of muffins, pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a few unidentifiable (but sure to be delicious) items.

It all earned a raised eyebrow from Riku. "What's the occasion?" he asked to no one in particular.

Selphie chose that moment to begin sobbing. Again. Even Kairi began tearing up as she attempted to calm her friend down. All the dramatics were enough to make Riku jump in his chair.

A spatula wacked him sharply against the back of the head. "Riku!" Sora was frowning down at him, already disposing of the offending weapon and pulling a clean one from the dishwasher. "You _know _what today is." Insisted the brunet, returning his attention to the skillet sizzling happily.

Riku's frown deepened, with the large breakfast it had to be something tramatic. Sora only ever cooked that much when something depressing was going on… aqua eyes drifted to the calander, the date circled with a fat red pen. _Time to say goodbye _was scrawled across the square.

Realization dawned on Riku's face slowly. "Oh," he breathed, it wasn't as if he had _forgotten_ per-say… It was just too early to function that clearly.

Today was the day Tidus and Wakka were leaving, both boys had been drafted for the New Zanarkand Blitzball team. It would be months before their girlfriends (fiancé, in Kairi's case) got to see them again. Hence the waterworks, and the breakfast.

And the hissing ball of ginger fur that was currently batting Yuffie across the floor… Selphie never traveled anywhere without her overweight pet. "S-sora be nice to Yuffie!" Selphie managed to choke out, startling her cat for a moment (long enough for Yuffie to zip under the couch).

The real Sora visible winced at the stove. He never could fully appreciate the _honor _of having a cat named after him. Less so because the offensive animal was a female. It definitely made visits from Selphie an interesting occasion.

It was a long awkward moment that followed, Riku thinking of something to say that wouldn't cause the girls to breakdown again.

"Are you alright?" Kairi asked, dabbing at her puffy eyes with a tissue, "you look kind of tired."

Riku straightened in his chair, his eye twitching slightly (when had _that_ started?), as he wondered if his sleepless nights showed that much. "I'm phone!" He smiled broadly.

It was the sudden and incessant giggling that tipped him off to something wrong in his manner of speech. He blinked slowly, replaying the two words he had said. "Uh! Fine! I'm fine!" He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. What was going on?

Selphie's hand shot into the air suddenly and all went quiet. "Y-yes Selphie?" Kairi called on her friend warily. Normally when the brunette raised her hand like that, it meant she had something that she deemed important to say, while the others would find it weird and a bit nutty.

"If you were a phone, would people have to talk into your crotch?" She asked with such an innocence that no-one in the room could doubt this was a legitimate question coming from her.

Riku shoved half a muffin in her mouth. "Just… just eat your breakfast." He insisted, attempting to laugh at the girl.

There was a clatter of silverware followed with idle chatter amongst old friends as Sora joined the table (with another stack of pancakes, strawberry?). A few hands were stabbed in the process of grabbing for the freshest batch of pancakes ("damn it Selphie, you got the blue berry ones let me have a strawberry one!" Riku cried). All in all it was a considerably cheerful morning.

Kairi was the first to lean back in her chair, pushing her plate away with a declared "I'm stuffed!" Selphie agreed with a loud slurp of the syrup on her fingers.

Sora chuckled lightly to himself. "Everyone got enough to eat?" he asked lightly, blue eyes dancing across the table. All his friends seemed on the severe bloated side, with content lazy smiles adorning their faces. "I take that as a yes." He began gathering plates on top of each other, preparing to clean them.

Riku reached out, holding firm to the pile his younger friend had made. "You cooked, let me clean." He insisted, keeping his aqua gaze steady.

Sora blinked, surprised. It wasn't unusual for Riku to insist on cleaning up their mess, but it was rare for him to be so forward about it. "A-alright," Sora relented with a cautious smile, fighting the blush that threatened to over take him.

Two breathy sighs from across the table diminished what little will-power Sora had stored. Suddenly his face was bright red as he glared at the girls. "What a sweet married couple they are," Kairi was stage whispering to Selphie. The brunette giggled in reply, "they must have had a _very _good night." The two girls sent Sora a sly look.

His face glowing, Sora mouthed back three words, "I hate you." With a small smile playing on his lips. They meant it in good fun, he just couldn't help getting so worked up over it.

More giggling, "you're just saying that to make us feel better." Kairi insisted, joining Riku at the sink to wash the soiled dishes.

Selphie was preoccupied chasing her cat around the house ("Sora-kitty come back! You can't _do _that to Yuffie-kitty!"), Riku and Kairi were splashing each other with bubbly water (they seemed to be getting far cleaner than the dishes) and it left Sora, sitting back down at the table, alone with his thoughts for a long moment.

_They had come back; Kairi after an extended break from school, to upset parents. Her adoptive Mom and Dad had been beside themselves, crying as she raced into their arms again. Riku returned to his elderly grandparents who welcomed him back with a quiet sincerity that had ruled his life._

_Sora, had come back to a dark and empty house. Dust covered every surface in a thin layer. The lights had been cut off months ago, yet everything else remained exactly the same. His room was still in the same exact disarray it had been when he left it at fourteen. His mother, was gone. Her health had been poor before Sora left, and once he was gone, she gave up. The romantics on the island claimed she died "of a broken heart" abandoned by her husband years ago (who had been claimed by the sea) and now by her own son. Sora finally realized, far too late, how ridiculous his dreams had been when they potentially cost his mother her life (although it wasn't really his fault, the doctors would insist, she had come down sick and her immune system was far too weak to fight)._

_Riku tried to have Sora move in with him, but his grandmother would have none of that. She blamed Sora, saying it was his fault that her grandson had been lost for so long. So Sora hid, for days, in his dark lonesome house alone._

_It was a hard time for all of them, he realized guiltily, they all worried so much about him._

_Finally, after what ultimately was only a few days, Riku came. He scaled the tree outside of Sora's second story opened window when the brunet refused to open the door. He launched himself in, landing with a bounce onto the bed._

_They stared at each other for a long minute, Sora's crystal blue eyes wide with shock, Riku's aquatic ones fighting some inner storm. "Come on," the older boy finally said, his voice sounding over used. He began gathering Sora's things, packing them away in bags he had brought with him._

_Finding his voice, Sora managed to ask "where are we going?"_

_Riku didn't answer him. Even as Sora begged, tugging on his arm the entire way down the many streets, he received no reply. Not until they entered an apartment complex, row after row of cheerful mini-houses staring back at them._

_"Selphie's mom is the manager," Riku explained quietly, fumbling with a set of keys, "she pulled a few strings, signed off on it and everything, and now it's home." It was a spacious place, two bedroom with their own baths, facing the ocean._

_Sora was overwhelmed, "but what about your grandparents."_

_Riku fixed him with a very strange look that day, his eyes shone back with some unfathomable emotion. "Sora, they're my family I'll never stop loving them. But they don't need me, you do."_

A warm hand was suddenly on Sora's forehead, he blinked, momentarily shocked. "He does feel a little warm," came Riku's voice, a look of concern gracing his face.

"No!" Sora declared, pushing away from the table, only to fall hard on his back. "Ow," he moaned, grabbing the back of his head with both hands. "I'm fine, I was just thinking."

Selphie was the only one who looked convinced, she skipped off calling for her cat again.

The other two fixed Sora with two very different, very hard looks. While Kairi's feelings for the two boys stemmed to brotherly love, some days she could be down right obsessive with their health.

"You're over-doing it again aren't you?" She chided sternly as Riku helped him to his feet. "Probably been staying up into all hours of the night working on recipes and then waking up at the crack of dawn to start cooking!" She was ranting now, her lithe body pacing back and forth as she lost herself to her concern.

She stopped suddenly (no-one really knew what she had been babbling about seconds before, they had all tuned her out sometime ago, and were thusly fearing the wrath she would undoubtedly bring upon them for ignoring her), placed her hands firmly on her hips and said; "that's it back to bed with you! I won't have you catching a fever or something by going out today," with her long arm pointing its way towards Sora's room there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she had switched to the unpredictable _mom _mode.

"No!" Sora balked at the very idea of it. "I'm not going to let Wakka and Tidus leave without saying good-bye to them!"

Nobody bothered to point out that Sora's hand was still firmly clasping onto Riku's.

So the four of them left the sunny apartment and the two cats behind. They walked side by side down the long streets in the warmth of the day (it was dangerously close to noon, the departure time for the ship), trying desperately to keep their conversations light to stave away the sadness that would soon wash over them.

Chapter Note: This was…longer than I anticipated…but I actually became wrapped in the descriptions a few times so… I hope you'll all bare with me...

P.S. for some reason when I first posted this chapter deleted a few key sentences... oO so it just seemed like Sora was spazzing out at the end...


	3. Downtime

Affection

Chapter Three

A.N.: It's been what? nearly a ear? Hahaha I've been working on this thing slowly but surely with all sorts of interruptions in between (I.e. Naruto), a few job swaps in between and then we realize this nugget of gold: I can use my USB drive at work. So I'm uploading this story back and forth to work on it during my eight hour grave shift as night audit J hopefully we actually get somewhere this time.

The sun was setting in a myriad of colors that lit up the landscape of the tiny islands, it was a sight that went fairly un-noticed as two boys lumbered into their shared apartment.

"What a day!" Sora sighed, flopping gracelessly onto the couch. He wiggled until his head met the other end of the sofa, his feet just barely dangling off. "Who knew girls could shop so much?"

After a long tearful hour spent on the dock, in which both girls continued to sob as the ship carrying their beloveds became a dot on the horizon, Sora and Riku had coaxed them away with the promise of "we'll do something fun, anything you want!"

Little did they know that would entail becoming pack-mules for the rest of the afternoon. They had been dragged, agonizingly slowly, from one end of the mall to the other. The only upside to the afternoon was the fact that the girls treated them to dinner afterwards.

Riku stumbled into the living room, his face pale and his eyes wide. "I so did not want to know that Selphie wore _those _kinds of underwear." His left eye twitched a bit at the very thought of it.

Sora could definitely sympathize with his friend, they had spent _far _too long in Victoria's Secret. If those two girls didn't mean so very much to them there would have been no way to make them put up with all the giggling those workers did!

"Never again, not unless they're on the deathbed," Riku muttered darkly, flipping on the television set.

The grin he received as a reply clearly says _we both know that's not going to happen_. "I'm going to take a shower," Sora announces loudly, managing an impressive roll off the couch.

His silver haired friend grinned despite himself, it amazes him sometimes how clumsy Sora can be one minute, and how graceful he is the next. "You need one," he replied with a straight face, "You're starting to smell like Pluto."

Sora stormed from the room with a feigned "hrmph." Seconds later the water was running loudly from his bathroom.

A calm settled over the nearly empty living room. Riku flicked through the channels at a leisurely pace. He finally settled for a recent re-run of CSI.

Some fifteen minutes had gone by when Sora called out from the hallway. "Riku, we need to do laundry! I'm borrowing a pair of your pajamas!"

Remembering the disaster his room had become after the last time Sora borrowed anything of his (the boy seemed to have a penchant for throwing everything onto the floor and deciding from there), Riku jumped to his feet with a cry of "No!"

He scrambled around the corner just in time to see Sora bend over his dresser.

The brunet was clad in nothing but a towel, which seemed to be slipping down his thin hips. The over-head light cast a brilliant glow to the slighter boy's scarred back. Riku's eyes raked over the picture in front of him. Long since healed, it still left an impressive image of what Sora had gone through. There were marks, jagged and faded at the edges, obviously left by heartless. There were others, and here Riku felt a pang of guilt, deeper and more sure in their intent that had most likely been left by key blades.

"You say something Riku?" Sora asked, turning to his friend with wide set blue eyes. He held a pair of pajama bottoms loosely folded over his arms and against his stomach. Riku watched him for a moment, studying the front side as he had done the back.

There were scars, not nearly as bad as his back, but they were still there and aimed closer for the heart. There was a large patch of paler skin, flaring out in an impressive starburst shape; reaching up past Sora's collarbone and down just beyond his sternum and almost all the way across to his right shoulder.

It made sense now, Riku thought numbly, why Sora would always wear a shirt swimming. To anyone on the outside (the _others) _none of those marks would make sense, too many questions and not enough answers…

Sora's brow furrowed in concern, Riku had been staring at him for a long minute. In a moment of self-consciousness, Sora crossed his arms over is exposed chest. "Riku?"

Riku snapped out of his memories, blinking several times to clear his head. Sora was impossible close, leaning forward on the balls of his feet, staring intently at Riku.

The silver-haired teen blinked, taking a shuffling step backwards. "No mess?" He asked dazedly.

One of Sora's eyebrows raised, his lips pursing. "I know where you keep your pajamas. No mess this time." Then he was brushing past Riku, sauntering out of the room, presumably to dress.

It took several deep breaths for Riku to calm himself. _You can't do this,_ he berated himself, _you can't keep blaming yourself for things that happened so long ago. Sora's fine, you're fine, it's okay._ Still, he couldn't help but feel they were in for a long night.

By the time Riku returned to the living room, Sora was sprawled across the couch (fully dressed), flipping the channels. He settled, at last, upon the opening credits to the _30 Minute Meal with Rachel Ray _program.

Riku scoffed, leaned over the couch, and snatched the remote back. He flicked quickly back to his CSI, settling comfortably in his chair.

Sora was sitting up now, scowling darkly in Riku's direction. "I was watching that." he growled lowly.

"And now we're watching this!" Riku replied cheerfully, turning the volume up a few notches. He smiled happily, pretending not to notice Sora's mini-fit in his peripheral.

"I _hate _CSI!" Sora cried, lunging suddenly, knocking Riku's recliner over. He rolled off quickly, springing to his feet and hitting the return button. Rachel Ray once again occupied the screen, and now it was Sora smirking in triumph.

"And Rachel Ray's voice makes me want to bash my head into a hall!" Riku declared.

His blue eyed friend looked very unconcerned, "just remember we don't have accident insurance."

The fight was on. Riku pounced again, using his momentum to carry him clear over the couch, the remote safely clutched in his hands. He jabbed the return button, cackling maniacally before tearing off for a safer distance.

Sora's responding squawk encouraged Riku to put an extra push behind his crazed escape. He paused in the kitchen, the island counter safely between him and Sora. He was breathing hard, his eyes twinkling brightly, it had been too long since they had a game.

He scanned the living room anxiously, had Sora even moved yet? All was still save for the television screen, where John Grisham was currently babbling about some-such-thing-or-another. Riku tensed, something was very wrong here.

Then, it hit him. Literally. Sora was clinging to his back, legs wrapped tightly around his waist, one arm hooked around his neck, the other flailing wildly for the remote. It became a wild dance to try and balance them both and keep the remote from the grabby smaller hands. They stumbled, suddenly, through the opened back door (which Riku later found out Sora managed to ambush him from) and they were spinning wildly across soft grass that gave way to softer sand.

Riku lost his balance then, they tumbled in a tangle of limbs to the ground, the prized remote lost among the tussle. They laid in the warm sand for countless minutes, laughing breathlessly. Sora lay sprawled across Riku, pulling himself up onto his elbows, his blue eyes sparking happily.

"I win!" he chirped. In his left hand he wiggled the remote ostentatiously.

His silver haired companion sighed in defeat, "I suppose you do."

Both returned to the house, feeling lighter than they had in weeks. One was resigned to play nice for the rest of the night, the other ecstatic he had won one over his friend.

They settled back into the living room, just as the ending credits were rolling. Sora groaned, smacking himself in forehead. "You have to be kidding me!" He sighed theatrically, flopping over sideways on the couch, "all that work and it's _over_?"

It took everything Riku had not to laugh at Sora in that moment. He offered, instead to let the younger boy pick the programs for the rest of the night.

Some hour past midnight, Riku finally realized Sora was asleep on the couch; snoring softly and bundled around a throw pillow. He moved deftly, first flicking off the t.v., casting the room in complete darkness for a moment. It took a long minute for his eyes to adjust, then he moved on to his next task; finding a blanket for his friend. It would probably be safer to let him sleep where he lie then try to move him to his bed (Riku had tried this once, and managed to give Sora a mild concussion by running him into the doorframe).

The following morning brought a rather unpleasant surprise for Riku; a sick Sora. The younger boy was strangely pale, complaining of a stomach cramp. Several times throughout the day Sora had rushed to the bathroom, gagging over the toilet. "If I could just puke," he said, speaking into the porcelain basin, "I think I'd feel better."

Kairi and Selphie were both avoiding the house, it seemed they were allergic to sick people or some such nonsense; and so it fell on Riku's shoulders to care for his best friend.

This would probably have been a simplier task if Sora would actually listen to him and would quit trying to get things himself. After chasing the boy out of the kitchen for the third time, Riku was strongly tempted to restrain him to the bed. "If you don't rest, you'll get a fever and then what are we suppose to do?" he hadn't meant to snap, but he had never been very good at dealing with illnesses.

Riku would be the first to admit he was no culinary genius like Sora (he had a feeling his friend's love for cooking came from too many nights attempting to eat what Donald or Goofy had to offer), and in the house, the kitchen was by far his less comfortable place to be; Sora had it organized in a way only the brunet could understand.

So instead of even pretending he knew what he was doing (which is something he'd occasionally attempt if Sora wasn't home); he grabbed a can of pre-made chicken noodle soup and set to the dutiful task of warming it in the microwave.

"Is that _canned _soup?!" Sora yelled from his bedroom, a note of indignation strong in his voice. "I didn't even know we owned canned soup. This..this is blasphemous!" He continued ranting for several minutes, making Riku question just how sick he _really _was.

But just as the soup beeped, merrily informing him it was done the other room became oddly quiet. Concerned, Riku carried the piping bowl of soup with him to Sora's bedroom.

The bed was empty, the blankets thrown haphazardly on the floor. The bathroom door was cracked open, and heavy breathing could be heard from the other side of the frame. "Sora?" Riku called carefully, sitting the tray down on the bedside table. Receiving no answer, he carefully prodded the bathroom door open with his toe.

There Sora sat, hunched over the toilet bowl; body rocking slightly with each dry heave. "Everything hurts so bad Riku," he whimpered piteously, laying his head in the crook of his arm.

Brimming with concern for his friend, Riku assisted him back to bed, the slighter form felt clammy against Riku's side but he bit his tongue from sounding like a worried mother.

"Just try to eat some soup and get some rest," Riku said with a tight smile, "you'll feel better in the morning, you'll see."

Only when morning finally came, Riku realized how very wrong he had been. Sora had developed a fever, one that spiked dangerously high several times throughout the day. Other than waking occasionally to complain about the heat, or a sudden pain that bothered him, the brunet stayed in a heavy slumber.

Riku, for his part, stayed by his best friend's side constantly, dabbing at Sora's brow with a cool rag occasionally. And leaving only to retrieve a fresh bowl of soup. "Come on Sora," Riku whispered sleepily, "you're stronger than this."

Then he too succumbed to the veil of sleep.


End file.
